Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov, who is said to be facing a 20-year jail term if convicted, is to appear in court Sunday after being arrested at a Paris airport for offences related to his popular messaging app, sources told AFP.
Russia has accused France of “refusing to cooperate” following the arrest of the Franco-Russian billionaire, 39, at Le Bourget airport on Saturday night.
Pavel Durov had arrived from Baku, in Azerbaijan, one source close to the case said.
France’s OFMIN, an office tasked with preventing violence against minors, had issued an arrest warrant for Durov in a preliminary investigation into alleged offences including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, one source said.
Pavel Durov is accused of failing to take action to curb the criminal use of his platform.
“Enough of Telegram’s impunity,” said one investigator who expressed surprise that Durov flew to Paris knowing he was a wanted man.
‘Pavel Durov: France Refusing to cooperate – Russia’
Russian authorities said they had demanded access to Durov but had no response from France.
“We immediately asked French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded that his rights be protected and that consular access be granted. Up to now, the French side is refusing to cooperate on this question,” Russia’s embassy in Paris said in a statement reported by the Ria Novosti news agency.
Businessman Elon Musk, who owns the X social media platform, posted a hashtag #FreePavel and commented in French, “Liberte Liberte! Liberte?” (Freedom Freedom! Freedom?).
Former US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr said, also on X, that “the need to protect free speech has never been more urgent”.
The encrypted messaging app, based in Dubai, has positioned itself as an alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users’ personal data.
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